How to Print Email Attachments Without Opening Them

Take the fast track to printing text, photos, and PDF files from Apple Mail.

Putting your favorite printers on the Desktop can help print files quickly--and in many cases, without ever having to open an application or fumble with printer options. Here’s how to make the magic happen on your Mac.

1. Get Started

From your Dock, open System Preferences (you can also get there from the Apple menu). Click Print & Fax.

The familiar ol’ Preferences pane is the starting point of this operation.

2. An Iconic Printer

Regardless of how many printers you have attached to your computer, you’ll find them all on the left side of the Print & Fax preferences window. Select the one you want to use for rapid printing and drag its icon onto the Desktop. Repeat for other printers as necessary. When finished, close System Preferences.

Start by finding the printer you want to use...

...then drag and drop its icon onto the Desktop.

3. Drag and Drop an attachment

Open Apple Mail and find an email you’d like to print an attachment from. Common attachments such as JPEG photos, text files from TextEdit, or even Preview-compatible PDF files are all candidates for direct printing. Click and hold on the attachment you want to print, then drag and drop it onto your new Desktop printer icon. The queue for your selected printer will open, and the file will print without launching an application or even presenting the printer options. The print queue remains open, but if you close the window, it will reopen as needed for each print job. With Thunderbird and Entourage, there’s another step—you have to copy the attachment to your Desktop, and then drag and drop it onto your printer icon. While we didn’t test other email clients, the same is likely to be true--we suspect that only Mail is this tightly integrated with OS X.

4. The Microsoft Exception

Sadly, some types of documents won’t let you perform this trick, such as those from Microsoft Word or Excel. However, using your Desktop printer will at least cut one step out of the printing process--the necessary application will launch, and your file will open, but you’ll skip the printer window and go straight to printing the document. (You’ll still get the printer queue window, however.

Why are we not surprised that Microsoft files don’t play nice?

5. Play Nice, iDevice!

Ironically, thanks to AirPrint, you can already print from Mail attachments without opening the required application by using an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad running iOS 4.2.1. Open the email, then tap an attachment to view it within Mail. Tap the Send icon in the upper-right corner, then Print. Select your printer, and away you go. If you don’t have one of the HP AirPrint-compatible printers, third-party Mac software such as Ecamm’s Printopia ($9.95) will get things going for any printer attached to your Mac. Here’s hoping Apple adds such simplicity to Mac OS X 10.7!

From any iDevice running iOS 4.2.1, view an attachment, then tap the Send icon to reveal the printing option.

You even get to pick your options before iPrinting your file. Not bad!